Authors are threatening to take legal action against the Government if they
are not paid royalties by libraries run by ‘Big Society’ type organisations.

Authors are threatening to take legal action against the Government if they are not paid royalties by libraries run by ‘Big Society’ type organisations.

Sarah Waters and Sir Michael Holroyd are among writers backing a campaign to make voluntary groups pay up for lending their work.

Usually each time a book is borrowed, the author is paid 6p, with a £6,000-a-year-cap, but authors are worried the switch will mean they are not paid lending rights because they only apply to public libraries.

More and more voluntary groups are forming to take over running of libraries, as councils seek to save money by cutting back on services.

Nicola Solomon, head of the Society of Authors, told The Guardian: "Dozens of volunteer-run libraries are being set up nationwide amid confusion over whether the Government is in breach of European copyright legislation.

“If volunteer libraries are not covered under the Public Lending Rights scheme, then lending by them could be unlawful unless authorised by the author."

She has written to Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, to seek "assurance that the overall fund will not be cut due to volunteer-run libraries being removed from the scheme".

The SoA believes the change could seriously impact authors’ earnings, which average only £5,000 a year.

Sir Michael Holroyd, the esteemed biographer, said: “The stated aim of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is to 'improve the quality of our cultural life'. All it has done, or tried to do, this year over public libraries and PLR for authors has been to impoverish the literary culture of the country."

A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport claimed changes in management would not affect payments.

She said:: “PLR payments to authors are set annually, with the amount going to individual authors based on the number of loans from a sample group of libraries.

“It is true that the small number of libraries that fall outside statutory local authority provision do not form part of that sample, but this has no effect whatsoever on the total amount of money paid out each year to authors."